The Work Thread
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@pyrephox said in The Work Thread:
I think it ended up burning out a lot of teachers and students, and convincing districts and many parents that virtual learning was a non-viable option, and now everyone is exhausted and stressed and at the end of their mental ropes. Everyone, from the kids all the way up.
Yes, whoever decided that having the same teacher try to support both online and in-person kids at the same time, solo, clearly had no idea. I can't fault them too much for it, because everything was thrown together in an emergency, but it does boggle my mind how anyone thought that was a good idea.
At the same time though, I think it's a simple fact that virtual learning is NOT a viable option for every kid. No more than remote work is a viable option for every adult.
All the decent cyber schools acknowledge that virtual learners require support at home. It's a partnership between the school and the family. It's not just plunking a kid down in front of zoom or worksheets all day and hoping for miracles.
My kid's virtual again this year for reasons, and they're still using their leftover curriculum from last year. The school librarian is supervising the virtual learners. The only "instruction" to speak of is the occasional overview video or a link to YouTube. I basically just have to homeschool him following their assignments/curriculum.
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Another factor is that, let's be honest? Expecting school personnel to deliver instruction, or kids to receive instruction, at a comparable level when people are literally dying around them is...kind of nuts. Teachers have lost family, friends, colleagues. Kids have lost the same, and even if we're not talking about the deaths as much in the media, that doesn't mean they're stopping. It's almost worse that it's a steady, ongoing trickle of deaths rather than a singular devastating event, because no one can go 'okay, it's over, we can relax'. Adults and children have to wake up every day with the knowledge that today might be the day someone they know, or themselves, gets sick with something that can kill them.
Every one of us is dealing with chronic stress and trauma right now, and the more we try to ignore that and push for 'normal', the worse off people are going to be.
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@pyrephox said in The Work Thread:
One of the complicating factors is that pretty much none of the schools which went virtual or hybrid did so with any real understanding of the support that virtual learning requires for teachers. Which isn't unusual: even a lot of purpose-made virtual schools aren't aware of best practices in virtual instruction and don't provide their staff with the training and support necessary to really succeed at virtual learning. It's not as simple as chucking a teacher without specific training in front of a Zoom and having 30+ students log on, give the teacher no additional assistants or support, and expect that to go well. It's not.
I think it ended up burning out a lot of teachers and students, and convincing districts and many parents that virtual learning was a non-viable option, and now everyone is exhausted and stressed and at the end of their mental ropes. Everyone, from the kids all the way up.
This is a HUGE thing. I try to keep in touch with my son's teachers. I want to make their job easier if I can, and I know my son's disabilities can make things difficult to accomplish even small tasks. A number of them were excited about virtual learning, they'd done research over the summer, they'd found different tools and means of teaching that were maybe not super conventional but would make virtual learning easier and less stressful all around. And then school started. And there was little in the way of IT support for them, and some of the tools they'd been excited to use were deemed to be outside the allowable range of what they could access. Some of them required fees that the school wasn't willing to pay. So it became a battle for them, every day, on what they could use since what was typically allowed wasn't an option. They wanted teachers to stick to the pre-pandemic curriculum and methods, even though a lot of them don't translate well or at all to virtual teaching or learning.
Now even the ones that were excited approach it warily and cautiously, and the ones that were already cautious don't want it at all.
@Ganymede What's infuriating to me is this 'Do This or Fail' stance they've taken. They're holding basic employability or secondary education over my son's head like some fucking Sword of Damocles. Put your health (physical and mental) at risk, or you will never be eligible for even the most basic fast food job or community college. Regardless of any other requirement for employment/schooling/training, the one thing everyone requires? A high school diploma/GED certificate. Something that ALL of us take for granted is being used as a weapon to keep him in the building. He will be present, or he will be denied the one thing he will need to have any sort of life as an adult. And they know it.
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@pyrephox said in The Work Thread:
Expecting school personnel to deliver instruction, or kids to receive instruction, at a comparable level when people are literally dying around them is...kind of nuts.
YES. It's like administrations everywhere are in a desperate catch up mode, without stopping to think about what they're trying to catch up to, or the fact that the emergency isn't even over yet. More than half of my kid's teachers were sick or in quarantine yesterday.
Applying pre-pandemic models of where kids "should" be at right now and expecting teachers to somehow perform magic to get them there is INSANITY. Teachers and kids deserve better.
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I'm going dark because I'm realizing I'm taking a lot of what is being said.
Please be kind.
No one in any school out there is out to hurt the children. No one.
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Some states have outright banned remote learning. The department of education has done that here. It will not count as 'in school hours' even though some classrooms have set up streams since there are kids that are out for extended periods because of COVID. This means that during the current spike even though most of the teachers in the district WANTED to go remote for at least the week after vacation everyone had to go back. Districts have basically been left on their own once again to scramble trying to do...well, anything. There is no leadership coming from above. Or above the above. Hell my daughter's kindergarten teacher was all set to come in Monday from vacation but decided to go get one of the completely voluntary tests the school was offering that Sunday and whoops, she was positive.
She otherwise would have been in class Monday and Tuesday--a class where the kids aren't the best at wearing masks judging by the pictures we get every day from school--because she didn't actually start having symptoms until that Wednesday.
It is maddening to me that employers and school administrations are just pushing for back to 'normal' when normal can kill people or leave them with long-term health issues. We're asking teachers to risk their lives once again while severely under compensating them. Or having plans in place to keep them safe. It drives me crazy that we are not innovating here and I have written lots and lots of emails to the heads of just everything I can get my hands on to try to get someone to listen.
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@silverfox said in The Work Thread:
No one in any school out there is out to hurt the children. No one.
See, that's the rub though. It's hard to "be kind" to those insisting that children be in class in person during this time, for whatever reason. You're correct in that, generally, no one in any school out there is acting maliciously. But that doesn't mean they aren't doing harm. Even with the best of intentions, their actions and decisions are hurting kids, and there has to be pushback on that. There just isn't an alternative.
I'm not sure what else can be done. It sucks for teachers, but it also sucks for kids. And government workers. And everyone else. It sucks for everyone, and we all have to deal with it, on some level or another.
But the school situation especially is just -- it's too big to simply write off and give a little shruggie and be like 'too hard to do it any other way'.
I just don't think that's compatible with the reality that we're currently in. And it sucks.
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@derp I mean, you're kind of forgetting in your response that at least some of the push to keep kids in school "no matter what" is because of all the children that were left behind due to no access to internet or because they didn't have a permanent living situation.
Like, there is no easy answer to this and whoever claims they have one is fooling themselves, and it shouldn't be hard to "be kind" right now because unless you have the magic answer, you aren't helping the situation by being unkind about it.
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I'm not forgetting anything.
My mom is a teacher, and I've seen what it takes to juggle hybrid classrooms. It's not easy, but it's hardly impossible, either. Plenty of occupations have had to start switching their methodologies on the fly to accommodate hybrid approaches to things. There are other options that could work. Rotating block schedules that offer a combination of online and in-person learning could be used to reduce the number of people physically present in the classes at any time, for instance.
But I routinely hear 'be kind' in the context of 'just let teachers do their thing'. And, sorry, but no. Teachers still have oversight and accountability to more than just the school administrators. Parents still get a say in their children's education, both in form and substance, for better or worse. And if what a teacher is doing isn't working for a particular child, and like above, accommodations are not being made after a parent expressed a concern and requested a change, then 'being kind' ultimately amounts to 'ignoring the issue', which I don't think is a viable standard. For anything. When polite requests fall on deaf ears, it's no longer time to 'be kind'. It's time to be firm, forceful, and insistent in advocacy for the children involved. The teachers in question probably aren't acting with malice, sure. But that doesn't mean that harm isn't being done, either.
As one of those children who finished school while not-in-a-permanent-living-situation, i.e. living out of my car, it would have been immensely beneficial to have the kind of flexibility in time/place/manner of education that is being asked for here. I am not unfamiliar with that situation, and I got 'left behind' because I had to show up to a classroom every day rather than watch a video and answer some questions when I had the time to do so.
Lack of internet access can be a problem, but given the resources available to schools for the purchase of laptops and wireless USB dongles through various grant programs designed for this purpose, it is hardly an insurmountable one if you have effective administrators. I know, I sign dozens of those contracts every day.
The resource that is lacking is the actual educators. That's what I don't know about, in terms of alternatives. There are only so many teachers, but those teachers have access to tons of resources. So on the one hand -- yes. That is a shitty situation for teachers to be in. On the other hand -- the teacher is one person, as compared to potentially dozens or hundreds of others that require the teacher to be flexible for that position. It sucks for teachers, and I feel for them, but not so much that I'm willing to let children suffer through the kinds of things mentioned above because it's easier for an educator.
If that's what's meant by 'be kind', then -- I guess I'm just not willing to do that. Not when the stakes are so high.
Racism isn't Tinkerbell. It doesn't need you to believe in it for it to exist.
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I haven't kept up with the debate here.
I will note as someone married to a teacher and high school basketball coach in the state of Texas...
It sucks since Covid.
My family (my spouse, myself, and my three children) are now just through our second time through Covid because masks are not enforced. And through this the lives of our family and those around us for the sake of in school attendance and sports have been impacted.
Can my spouse quit? Yes. When the contract is up (teachers are contract workers and should they break contract they are banned here from teaching for a few years) someone who is passionate about coaching and teaching IT will likely quit because they've been hospitalized twice this pandemic for the sake of the kids. It's not right.
I think we would feel differently if the school took precautions and Texas gave a shit. They don't. Fuck them kids. But more so fuck their parents.
All about no in school education absent mandates.
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@derp said in The Work Thread:
The teachers in question probably aren't acting with malice, sure. But that doesn't mean that harm isn't being done, either.
Right. @Too-Old-For-This's kid is suffering as a direct result of the decisions made by that school administration. So is my kid, though different situation / different decisions.
I have immense respect and sympathy for teachers having to operate under these conditions. They were overworked and underappreciated even before all this. It must be a nightmare now. I know that the vast majority of teachers are kind, caring, and well-meaning individuals just doing their best under extreme situations.
But sometimes even the best-intentioned efforts fall short, especially for kids who learn differently, and that can cause real actual harm. I don't think it's "unkind" to call that out as a problem.
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Exactly. As mentioned, I have absolutely nothing but wonderful things to say about my son's teachers. They've been working hard under impossible conditions and they still do everything they can to help him succeed. I wish I had a more adequate way to show them my appreciation for their efforts.
My issue comes in with the administration of the school telling me that my son cannot access something that is currently in use by other students, even though they provided him with the tools to access that very thing that is currently in use, and that by NOT allowing him to access it, they are directly impacting his mental health negatively and putting his physical health at great risk. People that are fully vaxxed and boosted are getting Omicron, and Delta is still circulating.
The school has so many students and faculty in quarantine or out for positive COVID tests that they've CANCELED midterms. But he's still not allowed to school from home using the tools and teachers that are already in place and in use.
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When you put people into a shitty situation with no resources and do not pay them adequately, you can hardly complain when they quit and others do not want to replace them.
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Lol, so.. right after typing this the school is closing tomorrow /and/ Monday for the insane East Texas covid case load they have right now.
No classes for my three sons tomorrow. And they get the MLK holiday! Woot.
Now here is where I just get sick. My spouse has to coach three basketball games tomorrow night. That's not cancelled. Covid < Sports but > Education. Go Texas.
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People here realize that it's not the teachers who are making the policies, I hope. And if teachers quit or commit suicide or have other breakdowns, it won't improve anyone's child's experience probably.
Someone saying that they are struggling or hurting or whatever doesn't diminish anyone else's.
At least around here the remote synchronizer instruction is something that has finite windows to sign up for because there is a finite number of slots staffed for. Regular homeschooling without district support is available to anyone. Staff supported but parent driven homeschooling support (middle ground) has more flexibility because of its structure and so they take on people on a space available basis and they have more spaces.
It pains me to see more parents have to go through this. I have a 2020 high school graduate kid and two 2021 hs graduates. There was a lot of grief I had in different ways for both of those years. And their college experiences have been chaotic. So I get that grief. I have further grief over the destruction in my now 2nd graders life and the long term impact of last year in particular.
However, me dismissing the very real distress and mental health issues that teachers face in dealing with this as well as being surrounded by community anger/dismissal doesn't really help.
The reasons why nobody is being served super well right now is a lot deeper than "just" bureaucracy. I can see why that sort of comment might come across as hurtful, intentionally or not.
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So, the job has started. I have been sitting in my current chair for almost 8.5 hours straight.
I am so tempted to accept that new credit card just to buy a new, better chair.
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@macha depending it may not be a bad investment when compared to other issues and injury/pain that will be caused if you don't have the proper support!
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Work Peeve No. 34,769
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To: <Me>
From: <Colleague>Re: Quick Question
I have a really simple, quick question. Can you call me?
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Bruh, if your question is simple and quick, then just write it out with your e-mail. Asking to confer by telephone is how I know your question is neither simple nor quick.
“It is better to live doing the things that you like. It is foolish to live within this dream of a world seeing unpleasantness and doing only things that you do not like.” -- Yamamoto Tsunetomo.
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@ganymede My supervisor will do this. When it's a quick note, he'll IM me on Teams or email me with the doc in question. When it's going to be A Thing, he calls.
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@ganymede At least they didn't schedule a meeting with you and three other tangentially attached people to discuss it?
